


Flying Alone Like a Petal in the Wind

by Cerillen



Series: Heroes for Hire [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: (Fini-create), It feels bad for you when you drink it tho, Just don't worry about it, Legal systems are hard so I'm making shit up as I go, Magic systems are easier but I'm still making shit up as I go, Squirt is a good soda, hopefully..., it'll be fine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 05:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16968732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerillen/pseuds/Cerillen
Summary: What is a Hero?It's what I aspire to be.So give me this chance.And I promise I'll become exactly what you need.





	Flying Alone Like a Petal in the Wind

There was a flyer on the telephone pole.

This would be a normal occurrence in any other place, at any other time.

But in this place, at this time, it was a rather strange thing to see.

Not because of the flyer itself.

The flyer looked like any other average flyer advertising any other average thing.

No, it wasn’t the flyer that made this a strange occurrence.

The thing that made it strange was the pole it was attached to.

Because it wasn’t just **any** telephone pole.

Oh no, this was **The Telephone Pole** **™.**

 **The Telephone Pole** **™** was a particular telephone pole that was meant to be completely clear of any trash, graffiti, or flyers at all times.

The reason being that nobody ever cleaned **The Telephone Pole** **™** before this declaration was made.

And this resulted in the old pole slowly falling apart beneath all of its various bits of coverage until it eventually just collapsed and fell onto a student walking out of the school it stood in front of.

The school was then sued for allowing such a thing to occur and, to prevent such incidents from ever happening again in the future, the school made it a rule that **The Telephone Pole** **™** was to be kept clean and clear of anything that could possibly hide or instigate any sort of rot or decay from appearing on the new wood.

As a student, disobeying this particular rule meant detention at best, expulsion at worst.

As a faculty member, you would be fired without hesitation.

And as anyone outside of the school, you would receive an obnoxious amount of grief from the faculty and a rather exorbitant fine for defacing property.

So everyone in town knew better than to stick anything onto **The Telephone Pole** **™** , unless you wished to test your luck and see how bad your punishment would be.

Which is why seeing a flyer on **The Telephone Pole** **™** was just so incredibly strange.

It had been at least a year since anyone had last tried to do so and that particular person was now attending a completely different high school.

Whoever had done this now was either new in town, very stupid, or incredibly brave.

 _‘Or, maybe…’_ The girl thought as she approached **The Telephone Pole** **™** and its newly acquired ornament. _’…they **really** want someone to see this.’_

After flapping a hand in the air to lower her overly long sleeve, the young girl reached forward and yanked the flyer away from **The Telephone Pole** **™** , leaving it bare once more.

She squinted at the paper for a moment, struggling to read the words.

Then she huffed quietly in disappointment when it turned out to be exactly what it appeared to be.

It was nothing more than an advertisement for a bar that had apparently just opened up nearby.

Slightly irritated with the flyer for getting her hopes up, the girl started folding the sheet of paper with the intent of throwing it into the nearby trashcan.

That intent was lost when she made the first fold and saw that something had been written on the back of the flyer in incredibly small cursive.

The girl repressed an involuntary groan and squinted once more at the obnoxiously difficult to read text that had been hidden from her sight.

She spent quite some time standing in front of the school gates, attempting to read the message.

When she was finally finished, she blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes as she continued on with her task of throwing the flyer away.

_‘Well, that was interesting.’_

The girl started towards her home but stopped after a time at a split in the road that she hadn’t really acknowledged in the past, beyond knowing which road led to where she lived.

After looking towards the path she usually took, the girl looked to the other one and started walking once more.

_‘I guess a bar isn’t the worst place for a high schooler to go to by themselves.’_

It was a slightly longer trek than the one she usually took to her house, but the girl didn’t really mind.

_‘If you wanna be a “true hero”, huh?’_

She stared up at the, strangely large for just a bar, building for a moment.

Slightly smaller than the other buildings around it, it stood three stories high and had a rather strange design that made it look like it was two buildings stacked on top of each other rather than a single building on its own.

The first floor looked like a classic pub, with stained glass edging on the windows and dark wooden walls with metal accents.

The second and third floor, however, looked more like a warehouse, with large factory windows and plain cement walls.

The roof also held a large black chimney pipe, adding to the appearance of the two upper floors.

_‘Wonder how long it took to make the first floor look like this…’_

The girl made her way forward once more and approached the strange building’s front door.

It had a small window with lightly frosted glass and a sign was visible through it that said, “Open”, in fancy black letters.

After squinting at the letters for a second longer than she should have, the girl opened the door and walked into the bar that looked just as it did on the outside.

Dark wooden walls with metal accents, similarly dark wooden furniture with leather cushions, and a stylized tile floor.

There was enough space to fit in the large bar itself, quite a few booths, some extra high tables to the side, an open area with a piano and a microphone on a slightly raised platform, and some scattered ceiling speakers that were currently playing what sounded like jazz.

“You won’t be getting any alcohol, but I can offer some soda if you’d like.”

The girl blinked and looked over at the young man currently standing behind the bar.

He was older than her, that much was obvious, but it didn’t seem to be by that large of a margin.

He appeared to be only in his twenties but had an air about him that spoke of experience.

He wore a white button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, with a dark colored vest and a black tie covered in delicate swirl designs.

She couldn’t see his bottom half because of the bar, but made an educated guess that he was wearing black slacks and dress shoes to match the rest of his attire.

His dark hair was styled in a slightly ruffled coif and his face looked clean shaven.

The girl and the man stared at each other for a moment, one examining while the other looked on curiously.

The girl blinked again.

“How much?”

The man’s lips quirked up in a smile and he nodded towards the bar in front of him.

“First one’s free. Go ahead and take a seat, I’ll getcha whatever you’d like.”

The girl nodded in turn and made her way onto a stool, glancing over at what looked to be soda fountains behind the bar.

“What’ve you got?”

“A pretty wide selection. Coke and Pepsi products, some random brands I thought tasted decent. Whatever you’d like, I’ve probably got.”

The girl hummed thoughtfully, then let her head fall listlessly to the side.

“Squirt?”

The man huffed out a surprised laugh before turning away to grab a glass.

“You’re a weird kid.” At the confused look sent his way in response, he decided to elaborate. “Not a lot of people drink this stuff. It’s got a bit of a kick to it.”

The glass was swiftly filled with murky carbonated liquid and handed over to the girl who immediately brought it to her lips.

“Weaklings.” She murmured into her glass.

The man snorted.

“Rude.”

The girl shrugged before taking a large gulp, making the man wince slightly.

The girl relished in the carbonated burn and let out a satisfied exhale when she was finished.

“So you’re one of **those** soda drinkers, huh?”

The man looked at her with narrowed eyes and an amused smirk.

She swiftly flipped him off while sipping more of her drink, making the man laugh a little at the response.

“So…” The girl said after a few minutes of, surprisingly comfortable, silence. “You’re Horice, right?”

The man blinked in surprise before narrowing his eyes once more, this time looking more calculating than amused.

“I am.” He replied with a nod before holding out his hand over the bar. “Horice Quilldon, at your service.”

The girl reached forward and firmly shook his bare hand with her own sleeve covered one.

“Ikigai Nai, nice to meet you.”

The man blinked once more.

“That…” He hesitated for a moment as he took back his hand and stared at the girl. “Doesn’t that mean, ‘no reason for life’?”

The girl shrugged, just as casually as she had been.

“Roughly.”

“Huh.” Horice took a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking once more. “So you’re Japanese?”

Nai shook her head.

“I’m a lot of races but, surprisingly, not that one. I ended up getting a name change while I was living in Japan a couple years ago though.”

“Ah. I see.”

“Yup.”

There was silence for a moment.

Nai took a sip of her drink and Horice seemed to be thinking about something while staring at her.

_‘I can smell the smoke coming out of his ears…’_

“So…”

Nai raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah?”

“I’m assuming you read everything on the back of the flyer?”

She nodded.

“You’re gonna start a guild, right? For **”true heroes”**?”

Horice nodded as well and stood up a little straighter.

“There aren’t enough of those these days so I’m going to register the guild once I get a second member.”

“Hence the flyer?”

“Hence the flyer.”

Nai hummed, taking another sip.

“Why’d you hide it then?”

Horice smirked and shrugged.

“Who’d take it seriously if it were just a straight up recruitment flyer?”

The girl nodded in understanding.

“Touché.”

She tipped her glass towards him before taking a slightly deeper gulp of her drink.

“So…” Horice started once more. “Is there a reason you followed the flyer’s directions or did you just feel like satisfying your curiosity?”

Nai shrugged, as she had been doing quite often today.

“Little bit of both.”

“So…”

“You say that a lot.”

Another sip and the man glared at the girl for a moment before rolling his eyes and returning to the topic at hand.

“Did you come here to join the guild?”

Was his question.

“Are you cool with letting in minors?”

Was hers.

_‘He probably wouldn’t have put it in front of a high school if he wasn’t, but still. Best to check.’_

She wasn’t very surprised, but was still pleased to see Horice nodding in affirmation before he spoke.

“So long as you’re capable and willing to work, I have no problems with you being a high schooler.” Nai opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the man’s sudden addition to his statement. “Oh! I will need your parent’s permission though. There’s some paperwork they’ll have to deal with for this sort of thing. And I’m not really comfortable with bringing someone’s kid into dangerous situations without them knowing about it.”

He ended his statement with a shrug, then blinked when he noticed how stiff Nai had become without him noticing.

_‘Damnit…’_

Nai’s fists clenched and unclenched in her sleeves and she looked away from the confused barkeeper and over towards the piano on the other side of the room.

There was silence for a moment as Horice waited for her to speak and Nai tried to think of the best way to explain her situation without giving too much away.

“I…” Another moment of hesitation. “I don’t actually have anyone at home to get permission from.” Horice seemed to want to say something in response but she interrupted before he could get a word out. “But I qualify as an independent so I can just sign any paperwork involving me myself.”

Horice remained silent for a moment, staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

Then he sighed and nodded as he reached forward and took away Nai’s now empty glass.

“Alright then.” He swiftly refilled the glass and brought it back for her, staring her down as he asked his next question. “So if I go and get the paperwork, you’ll come back tomorrow to sign it?”

Nai nodded.

“Absolutely. Any particular time?”

“Same time as today? You just got out of school, right?”

“Yeah. I don’t have any after school stuff so I can come by any day after two and any time during weekends.”

An eyebrow was raised in surprised curiosity.

“You live alone and you don’t have a job? How are you even surviving?”

An eye roll and a small sip was given in response.

“I **have** a job. My hours are just flexible, so I can make myself available whenever. Which is a pretty useful quality for a hero to have, I think.”

His gaze turned calculating once more.

“It is. But there are other useful qualities for a hero to have.”

A different eyebrow raised in curiosity.

“Oh?”

Horice gave her one last long look before seeming to come to a decision.

“Yeah. So if you’re willing, I’d like to see if you happen to have any of those.”

Both brows raised in surprise and an already half empty glass was placed gently onto the bar.

“What, now?”

“Yeah, now. Why else would I have said it now if I didn’t mean to do it now?”

Nai looked around the bar before giving him an incredulous look.

“Aren’t you worried I’ll break something?”

Horice blinked and barked out a laugh.

“No, I didn’t mean we’d do it in here. I have an area meant for stuff like this. If you’re willing, we can go there and I can give you a test of sorts to see how much you can help me out in the future.”

Nai gave him a deadpan look.

“You’re not just going to lead me into a weird sex dungeon or anything, are you?”

Another bark of laughter followed her statement and Horice rolled his eyes as he walked out from behind the counter.

“No, I’m not. Though, I’d hope you’d be able to handle getting away if I tried to do so. It would be a good example of your abilities.”

He walked out of the room without looking back and Nai followed without hesitation.

The two joked about whether or not that truly would be a better recruitment test, as they made their way up the building’s winding staircase.

They reached the top relatively quickly and Nai was presented with a mostly empty roof top.

"So, how exactly do you plan on-"

The quiet hiss of acid on concrete filled the sudden silence.

Nai, who'd fallen backwards rapidly in response to the projectile sent flying towards her face, quickly spun herself around and into a defensive position.

The acidic goo that had been thrown at her continued to eat away at the wall she'd been standing in front of as Horice let out a small huff of laughter.

"You have good reflexes."

Nai's eyes sharpened into a glare.

"Did you consider what would happen if I didn't?"

And Horice simply smiled.

"Of course." A small ball fell from his sleeve and, after taking a moment to make sure she saw it, Horice smashed the small object against his bare arm. "This acid only eats away at inorganic materials."

Nai blinked, her eyes softening with the loss of her anger.

She raised an eyebrow, maintaining her defensive position as Horice wiped the acid off of his arm.

"Like clothes?"

Horice also blinked before rolling his eyes.

"Yes, like clothes."

"That's the sort of thing you see in ecchi manga, dude."

"That is not why I made it."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"So you weren't trying to melt away my clothes?"

"You are in high school."

"And?"

"I am an adult."

"So?"

"That is illegal."

"That doesn't stop the ecchi manga protagonists."

Another ball was thrown and dodged, this time resulting in the small orb expanding into a large mass of hard foam upon impact.

Horice pointed his finger and wagged it scoldingly in Nai's direction as he walked towards a table near his side of the roof.

"That is enough out of you. We are not up here to accuse me of being an ecchi manga protagonist."

Nai tilted her head to the side as Horice grabbed a jacket from the table and went about putting it on.

"Are you sure about that? Cus I feel like that's something we should probably talk about."

Horice, not bothering to respond to that statement, held up a small leather pouch.

"This is your goal." Nai straightened slightly, assuming that this was the moment when things got serious. "If you can take this away from, then I'll consider you a member of the guild and give you the paperwork tomorrow. Deal?"

Nai nodded as Horice moved to attach the pouch to a loop on his coat.

"Deal."

"Great, then let's get started."

Another small orb was thrown, this time straight at the ground, and the air was quickly filled with smoke.

In response, Nai decided to show off just a little.

With the whooshing sound of magic manifesting, a huge pair of glowing wings, that could be seen even through the thick smoke, sprouted from Nai's back.

The glow dissipated quickly after that, leaving the feathered wings plain once more as Nai used them to generate winds strong enough to blow the smoke away.

Just as the smoke started to disappear, the sound of a gun firing had Nai instinctively creating a pure magic wall in front of her as a shield.

Unfortunately, Horice had been prepared for that.

Two of the four bullets fired went right through the shield, making Nai grunt a little in pain as one managed to graze her side, even as she dodged.

Despite this, Nai quickly recovered and started rushing towards Horice.

More bullets were sent flying, alongside a handful of various orbs that left small collections of hard foam in their wake.

But Nai managed to dodge well enough to reach her opponent with only a couple more grazes.

Upon reaching him, however, she was quickly sent back again by the sudden appearance of a scythe she hadn't seen before.

The weapon was large, imposing, and constantly shifting, suggesting that it had morphed out of a previous state that had allowed Horice to hide it within his coat somehow.

_'I wonder if he'll show me how he made all this stuff once I'm in the guild.'_

Nai, not having any sort of weapon herself, lunged forward and began trying to get past the scythe long enough to reach the pouch at Horice's hip.

_'I'll have to ask him later.'_

It was only when Nai finally managed to duck at just the right angle that she was able to use her wings to send the scythe flying.

It quickly morphed midair, likely from the whispered command she actually heard from Horice this time, and was only just returning to his hand when she managed to reach a hand towards the pouch at his hip.

She was then sent flying as well, with a word from Horice that she finally identified as Draconic in nature, and only stopped when she fell off of the roof and had to quickly use her wings to catch herself.

By the time she returned to the rooftop, she was short of breath and quite sore.

Horice was also short of breath and sweating something fierce as he returned to a ready stance, holding his gun ready once more.

"Wait!"

Nai held up her hands as she landed with a shout.

"Are you hurt?"

Horice called out in return.

But Nai shook her head.

"Not enough to stop the fight."

"So why am I waiting?"

Nai nodded towards him.

"Your pouch is gone."

Horice's eyes widened and his free hand quickly moved down to grab at the pouch that wasn't there.

Just as he moved his gaze towards the empty spot on his hip, he realized what had happened.

It hadn't taken him long to figure out what exactly Nai was, given all of the abilities she'd shown him so far.

So he really should have expected something like an intangibility skill to be within her arsenal.

The pouch that his hand had moved right through was still attached to his hip.

But only for a moment.

As his inattention gave Nai the opening she needed to rush forward and snatch the pouch from him before he could do anything more than fire a single bullet into the ground beside her.

Nai, exhausted from using her abilities more than usual, rolled to a stop a few feet behind him, the pouch sitting securely in her hand.

She jolted with a small amount of surprise when the pouch suddenly grew hot right before bursting and transforming into a small but beautiful display of colored lights.

The display was only there for a moment before dissipating into thin air, leaving Nai and Horice both silently staring at the spot it had taken place in.

After a few seconds of continued silence between the two, Horice finally let out a long exhale.

"So you're an Alchemist?"

Nai's voice was rougher now as she grew sleepy from the exertion.

"Yeah. And you're an Oracle?"

Horice's voice was breathy but mostly still the same as he moved to sit beside her.

"Yup."

"Don't see those much. You're rare."

"Yup."

"You've got some pretty decent abilities too."

"Thanks."

"Didja steal 'em?"

"...just one."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"...don't wanna talk about it?"

"Yeah."

"K."

"..."

"..."

”...”

"I'll have the paperwork ready tomorrow."

"Cool."

"Yeah. But, for now..." Horice rose from the ground with a groan, before turning towards Nai and reaching a hand out to her. "Wanna go downstairs and get some water?"

It was only then, as Nai looked up at the face of this person she'd only just met today, that she noticed something.

There were petals floating gently through the air. 

At the base of the chimney she'd seen from the street, there was a small garden.

It sat on a slightly raised platform closer to the roof entrance, so she hadn't had the opportunity to really see it.

And there had been so much going on that she hadn't even noticed the little petals flowing around them.

_'I wonder what color they are...'_

Seeing them made her heart ache.

Her hand reached up and took Horice's.

"Yeah. That sounds nice."


End file.
